Psalms 119:105
Thy word is a lamp to my feet
and a light to my path.
We can sometimes forget that Scripture was written in a time very different from our own. We can forget, for instance, what “night” meant in the ancient world, particularly to a largely rural people. For such people, “night” really did mean pitch darkness. No electricity. No residual city light reflected off the clouds. No matches if the candles went out. Where was Moses when the lights went out? In the deep deep dark. So the image of a lamp was particularly potent for an ancient Jew because there really was a stark difference between day and night. To call the word of God a “lamp” was really saying something, because without that lamp, you were not in a lovely half-light of religious sentiment, you were in pitch darkness with monstrous alien gods like Moloch or Chemosh who demanded things like child sacrifice. That word was the dividing line between madness and sanity. But it was also a very local and homey sort of light. It was not like the sun, lighting up the landscape for miles around. It was a lamp, illumining just enough to see the next step to take. Trust God to lighten your way today. You needn't see the whole path, just the next step. Take that step and let God take care of the rest.
